ArtsMemphis will present the Stax to the Max music festival Saturday, April 27, from 11 a.m. to 7 p.m. outside the Stax Museum of American Soul Music, 926 E. McLemore St. Admission to the festival is free; discounted museum tickets are $2 between noon and 5 p.m. Visit staxmuseum.com.

Metropolitan Bank has come a long way in five short years. Since being founded amid the worst financial crisis in the U.S. in generations, the bank – which in March celebrated its fifth birthday – has grown its assets from $243 million at the end of 2008 to $722 million at the end of 2012.

1993: On the front page of The Daily News is a story looking at the formal opening on the Main Street Trolley, a project eight years in the making that remade what had been the Mid-America Mall. The Memphis Area Transit Authority offered free trolley rides the first two days of operation.

Memphis City Council members opened budget committee hearings Tuesday, April 23, on the clock and with lots of questions about what seemed to some like different budget numbers from last year at this time by the administration of Memphis Mayor A C Wharton Jr.

Camp for developmentally disabled children, adults seeks donations

There will be kickball games, limbo dances, arts and crafts, and a talent show. There will be all of that and more at the sixth annual Camp Good Times residential summer camp May 30 through June 5 at Meeman-Shelby Forest State Park in Millington.

Independent retailers get boost from Record Store Day

This year’s Record Store Day, an international celebration held the third Saturday in April, brought casual music fans along with diehards and vinyl evangelists into music shops around the country, including Goner Records and Shangri-La Records in Memphis.

FedEx employees volunteer for Wolf River cleanup

Memphis-based First Horizon National Corp., the parent company of First Tennessee Bank, kicked off its first quarterly earnings announcement of 2013 by meeting analyst expectations and reporting a profit of $42.2 million, up from $30.5 million during the first quarter of 2012.

Andy Wright has joined Memphis-based Magna Bank as senior vice president and manager of commercial banking. Wright, who previously held senior vice president positions at Iberiabank and First Tennessee Bank, has experience working with a variety of industries, with in-depth expertise in the transportation and logistics industries.

I’LL TAKE YOU THERE.“Oh, mmm, I know a place… When Mavis Staples sang those words, everybody in the audience was moved to move. The kind of primal itch you got to scratch, the kind of muscle over mind that makes toes tap, fingers snap, and hands clap.

Ray’s Take Persistent high unemployment and more than a decade of volatile stock markets have many people anxious to draw Social Security as early as possible even if they are shy of full retirement age. Some are so anxious about the system they want to get what they can before it goes bust. No one has a crystal ball, but more often than not, this is not the best plan.

A decade ago in this space, I told a story about receiving multiple hang-up phone calls between midnight and dawn over a period of several weeks. Via Caller ID and returning some of these calls at later times, I learned the Greyhound Federal Credit Union’s toll-free automated line was one digit off from a toll-free number I’d acquired years earlier. Somehow, I got the issue resolved with Greyhound.

In today’s dynamic world it is imperative for companies to continually realize growth through a sustainable competitive advantage. The trouble is that every innovation is just one new innovation away from becoming obsolete. How do proactive companies stay one step ahead?

Last week we discussed the Memphis Area Fellowship of Christian Athletes, which is focused on making a positive, and eternal, impact in the arena of athletics. This week let us explore an organization with the mission of helping people affected by HIV/AIDS live well: Friends For Life Corp.

One of the things we take a lot of pride in is the number of not-for-profit clients we work with. I currently handle five not-for-profit accounts, and each is unique and exciting in its own way. If you can’t intern at an agency, one of the best ways to get your “PR feet” wet is to do an internship at a not-for-profit in college.